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Ian -
I see that Panasonic is projecting a loss of more than US $10 BILLION for the year. Most of this is due to problems in the HDTV business and continuing writeoffs for their purchase of Sanyo. However, I wonder what pressures it might place on their camera business? Have you seen any comments about how well that division is doing?

Basic Information

Date of Birth

25th March 1961 (56)

About Ian

Biography:

I have been a journalist since 1984, covering IT, consumer electronics and, lately, digital photography topics. In the early 1980s I worked in the photographic retail trade and have been in photography since school days, spending much time hiding in the school darkroom instead of doing sports!

Location:

Hemel Hempstead UK

Interests:

Photography, cooking, appreciating good wines, travel, watching F1 motor racing, family life with my wife and business partner, Julia, and our two daughters who frequently appear in my photography.

Occupation:

Journalism, online publishing

Cameras owned:

Too many to list! Currently using Olympus E-510, Sony Alpha A100, Fujifilm FinePix F11. Also have an E-1, E-500, E-330, E-400 and E410.

Recent Entries

Panasonic's new GX8 is packed with cutting-edge developments for Micro Four Thirds

Don't just look at the Lumix DMC-GX8 as an update to the two year old GX7, or a flat-top version of the recently released G7. I had an afternoon to try out the GX8 recently at a rather blustery Brighton and discovered why the GX8 is rather special.

As I revealed on the forum earlier in this week after a tip-off from a highly trusted contact in the camera industry based in Japan, I am completely convinced that the Olympus OM-D E-M5 sensor is not made by Panasonic, so marking an end to the exclusive use of Panasonic sensors in Olympus Four Thirds and Micro Four Thirds cameras since Olympus' last Kodak

Over at our sibling site I covered the issue of diffraction limiting digital cameras some time back. If you reduce the aperture setting in your lens beyond a certain point that relates to the pixel pitch of your camera's sensor and your images will get softer because of diffraction.

With 12.3 megapixel Four Thirds and Micro Four Thirds cameras the theoretical diffraction threshold is almost exactly f/8 although in practice I find that f/7.1 is the aperture to aim for. Users of Micro

An important innovation in recent years is image stabilisation. First developed for video cameras, image stabilisation is now a common feature in all kinds of still cameras. Image stabilisation is designed to minimise the problem of motion blur in an image caused by the movement of the camera. In other words, the system uses gyro sensors to detect movement of the camera and compensates for that movement to prevent blurring of the subject being photographed.

SWD stands for SuperSonic Wave Drive. It's Olympus' own technology and is used in three areas across the company's camera body and lens products.

Olympus has developed and patented several technologies that centre around the transmission of mechanical energy through high frequency vibrations. These vibrations are at so-called 'supersonic' frequencies in excess of around 25KHz, and they project wave forms through otherwise solid media,